Route 62
Trip Start
May 20, 2010
1
179
195
Trip End
Sep 05, 2011
Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, South Africa
Monday, August 1, 2011
Day : 432
Temperature : 21 degrees daytime, and below freezing at night time! Brrrr
Weather : Sunny and beautiful
When we woke up on the morning that we left Johannesburg it was grey and dark outside...and it was snowing! As you can imagine we were certainly glad to leave, heading hopefully to warmer climes.
We spent more or less the entire day on the road, stopping only for toilet breaks and for food. At midnight we arrived in Beaufort West, found a hotel with camping and pulled in for the night. We have kitted up our Bakkie (pronounced Bukkie) with a double blow up mattress in the back, and so in the pitch black, freezing cold we climbed into the back and tucked ourselves up in our sleeping bags. There would not however, be any sleep for us, because it was positively Baltic and our feet were icicles.
We wearily dragged ourselves out of our sleeping bags and discovered that the entire inside of the Bakkie was covered in ice! No wonder we were cold. Thankfully, the hotel had boiling hot showers, and so after several hours (joking!) under the hot water we finally warmed up enough to get going again. First stop was into town to buy some hot water bottles and another duvet.
We then headed south towards Route 62, stopping at various points along the way for photos as the road cut through the dramatic mountains. After a lunch stop we finally arrived in Oudtshoorn, which is apparently the Ostrich capital of the world! We drove to one of the many Ostrich farms in the area where we paid for a tour of the facility and learned much about these beautiful, but extremely stupid birds.
In days gone by, so we were told, Ostriches were primarily farmed for their feathers, when at the time, 1kg of feathers was the equivalent price to 1kg of gold! Nowadays however, Ostriches are primarily farmed for their meat. We did have the chance to stand on ostrich eggs (and hope that they don't break!) and even ride an ostrich. Unfortunately, this could only be done if you were under 80 kg. So lucky me, I got the chance to risk my life on the back of an extremely large, extremely stupid bird. This procedure involved the guides putting a bag on the head of the ostrich...apparently, if the ostrich cannot see anything, then he is unaware of what is going on, and everything is hunky dorey! I then climbed on the back of the ostrich, held onto it's wings, at which point the bag was whisked off the ostrich's head, the crowd has to make as much noise as possible, and the ostrich takes off at the speed of light, with myself flailing around on it's back completely out of control. And yes, I wash totally shaking when I got off.
At least I survived, and I can say that I have ridden an ostrich....I have my certified Ostrich Driving License to say so!!!
Comments
Snowing!! Can't believe that. We're off to Devon tomorrow for a week so hope to catch up when we get back. x
Heatwave here but almost ended. How about a call soon?
I shall be here over the weekend. No problems to report
Dad
Hope you enjoy Devon Hol, we will try to call but if no luck then it may be a while before we have internet again. xx